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Thursday, April 29, 2004

Deadwood - the Best Show on TV

I know, that's a bold statement and all, but Deadwood continues to surprise me with witty writing, quick pacing, and intriguing characters. The bad guys
aren't all bad, and the good guys have mean streaks the width of a Conestoga wagon. On Episode 6-The Plague, we are treated in the first few minutes to watching Bullock, our only surviving 'hero,' beat an Indian to death with a rock. Brutal and scary, I explained to my wife, watching her first episode, that this blood-covered cowboy (flailing away at the Indian's head with that handy stone) was our hero. There are subtleties and shading in this show that simply don't appear anywhere else on TV today (with the exception of some episodes of 24 and West Wing). The writing here is delightfully arcane and convoluted, convincing me that cowboys in the 1870's had deeper vocabularies than most of my co-workers. And if you like cussing, this show has it - colorful, flowery, inspired -- you'll hear words that your grandfather must've used when he slammed his thumb in the door of his Studebaker...I beg you to watch this show. It will do you good. And you'll stop complaining about too much soy milk in your latte. Remember, things are better now than they used to be, no matter what your Grandmother tells you. At least nowadays people bathe regularly.

Angel - 3 episodes left!

Lost interest in the show when I heard it was being cancelled, but yesterday I got caught up on a few episodes I had recorded. Looks like the show is determined to go out with a bang - first Cordy is killed off, then Fred. On the "Time Bomb" episode from last night, Spike, Angel, Wes, and Lorne were all killed by Illyria in the space of about ten seconds before an earlier version of Angel was able to intervene and set things right. Thankfully, he didn't also have to go back and convince his mother to go to the Enchantment Under the Sea dance with his father! Time warp episodes are always fun but nonetheless unsatisfying because you know everything will be 'fixed' eventually. Illyria was stripped of some of her powers and looks to be joining 'Team Angel' just as the show wraps up. Here's a great review over at AICN.

Scary Trailer for "The Village"

For those of you who don't know, The Village is M. Night Shyamalan's new haunted woods picture, due June 30th. He's set up an excellent website for a film, with the trailers and some very creepy ambient sounds. Check it out, but turn your sound up...and let's hope this is a big for Touchstone, which is having a horrible run of late (The Alamo, Ladykillers, Hidalgo and Home on the Range have all been duds)